Atlanta 2050:Sessions:20191019
It is Wednesday, July 13, 2050. Over the past several months the Watcher Network in Austin has "taken a hit." Another fanatic group calling themselves Justices of Templar has started taking care of "magic problems." They, too, are prejudiced against weres, but don't go out of their way to harm them.
Dr Liz has recently seen four cases of drug overdose that share similar symptoms: the victims suffered severe cramps, headaches, swelling, and high fever. When magic is "on" they have "unusual manifestations of body parts," such as elven ears or eyes, hobbitlike feet, or blue skin. The new drug is called Magic J and it's purported to turn the user into a mage. Its formulation and manufacturer are unknown.
Joe Spikes is summoned to breakfast with Lord Beast. He and wereboar Daniel Kidd are assigned to check out gang activity in the Bankhead area of Atlanta. "You might encounter a roadblock. Pack the horses, gun up."
Joe and Daniel come upon a 20' wall, in front of which area a man and a woman wearing USPS uniforms. Up on the wall are at least two people with rifles. Daniel mutters that his back itches, meaning that there is someone hostile behind them. The woman cheerfully asks their business and who they represent. "Lord Beast," Joe replies; "Just wanna look around." The woman says they must leave their horses and pay $10 apiece for someone to watch them.
Once through they door, they find chaos, trash in the streets, kids running around, adults going openly armed. Daniel remarks that the place has looked like a war zone for the past 15 years. A gang of four kids, ages 12-15, come running up armed with guns, knives, and chains. They all seem jittery. The oldest demands, "You have to pay the toll -- $5 each!" "We don't need a guide," Joe replies. He knows the 15-year-old is about to pull a gun, so Joe steps into him and takes it away. He makes sure the chamber is empty, then pops out the clip and drops it in his pocket. Daniel smacks another kid and rumbles, "You know we're with the Lord Beast." The kids scurry back, then run away.
A little later, Joe and Daniel see the 15-year-old and the 12-year-old coming back. There's a blur effect, then the 15-year-old changes into a werewolf with a thick, armored tail like an alligator's. The younger boy shrinks to 3' high while sprouting rabbit fur. Joe shifts to his Warrior form. The bunny is so cute, though, that Daniel wants to pet it and Joe wants to befriend it. After a few rounds of combat, during which Joe takes crushing damage from the 15-year-old's tail, Daniel strikes the bunny and both boys fall down and revert to their normal forms. The boys are convulsing and feverish. Daniel and Joe glance around, but the bystanders seem more entertained than concerned. Joe decides to take the kids to Grady Hospital, 20 minutes away at a gallop.
Meanwhile, Nurse Sheila Ray asks for a private meeting with Dr Liz. Sheila hands over a plastic bag containing Magic J, explaining that she'd gotten it from a "clan associate" who had tried the drug for its "magic high." After taking it, he had been able to conjure fire -- once. Then he tried to sweet-talk Sheila but his nose grew long and pointed, like Pinocchio's. Dr Liz spends some time in the hospital's laboratory analyzing the drug.
Dr Liz is paged to the ER. She carefully locks away the drug and her notes and secures the lab. The patients are two boys. Dr Liz asks Sheila to sniff them for drugs; Sheila's only response is to lick her lips and say "The little one smells delicious!" Dr Liz administers medicine to reduce their fever and ease the convulsions. When the magic comes on, the 15-year-old's hands briefly turn into werewolf's paws, and the 12-year-old shows bunny ears.
Joe catches her attention and tells her about their encounter. She gives him a baggie containing Magic J residue to take to Lord Beast's citadel.
At dinner, once Lord Beast has heard Joe's and Daniel's reports, he has a telephone brought to him. He dials a number, then says, "Take the tollbooth down and the first part of the wall, or I'll take it down myself." Lord Beast already knows all about Magic J, which he says has killed 15 people in the past three months. He attributes the drug to a gang called Janus Club which runs the part of town called Vice City. "It's time to take away their territory," muses Lord Beast, "and turn it over to the were-hyenas" that are migrating into Atlanta. He picks up the phone again and leaves a message for Dr Liz.
The boys are identified as 15-year-old Bruce Nelson and 12-year-old Steven Gregg, and Bruce's mother and Steven's aunt and uncle have been notified. Dr Liz makes sure they are well-fed, and Sheila brings them extra helpings of Jello. They will be released to their guardians Thursday morning.
Once she gets home, Dr Liz returns Lord Beast's call. "I trust your magical sense," he says, so tomorrow night he will send Tommy and Donnie Smith to pick her up, then Lord Beast will lead a small group into Vice City to confront the Janus Club.
Joe and Daniel go to Vice City to recon. It is a planned community in the shape of a square; mostly houses and townhouses, with no fences or visible guards. A cluster of four houses in a cul-de-sac in the southeast corner, however, smells of blood and "feels yucky." They sense eyes upon them. A haze clouds their vision and they hear skittering sounds. Approaching the largest house, they feel colder and colder. Just as the magic comes on, Joe suggests they make another pass. As they turn around he glances at Daniel and notices that, just for a moment, Daniel's shadow didn't move with him.
Dr Liz gives a sample of Magic J to Dr William Corvalan, a fellow medical mage. He is eager to study the drug.
At the end of Dr Liz's shift, Tommy and Donnie pick her up from the hospital and drive to a modest house. Lord Beast is there, as well as Joe, Daniel, three wererats (Sheila, Fox, and Gary), and a few other werewolves (Megan and Henry). Lord Beast's orders are straightforward: "Kill people, confiscate the drug." Once it grows dark, they approach the cul-de-sac.
Dr Liz asks Lord Beast if there are shadow creatures about; she had noticed that, for a moment, Joe's shadow didn't move with him. Daniel comments, "Joe looked dark in the back." Dr Liz shines her flashlight at Joe's feet and a shadow moves closer to him. She raises the beam to Joe's torso and suddenly Joe feels slightly weaker (ST -1). Dr Liz casts Sleep and the shadowy form goes limp; Lord Beast takes the flashlight and uses the beam to sever the shadow from Joe. Lord Beast remarks, "You put its controller to sleep."
Lord Beast takes Dr Liz by the hand and leads his team of five to the front door. He knocks firmly; no one answers, and he kicks the door in. Five crossbow bolts fly at them but none of them hit. The weres hear scraping and skittering sounds, and Dr Liz catches the smell of chemicals from the basement. She turns the knob to the basement door, and utters a squeak of surprise when it shocks her hand.
At the top of the stairs to the second floor Joe sees a vampire, who asks him, "What do you want, animal?" "Cleaning," snarls Joe, leaping at the vampire. Upstairs are four vampires and four humans in a lab lit with fluorescent bulbs. There is a press connected by a tube to a magic field; the press forms the liquid mana into wafers. "Circles with legs" detach from the walls and skitter about, then start coalescing into a humanoid shape. Joe, Daniel, Lord Beast, and the others defeat the vampires and destroy the shadow shape.
In the basement Dr Liz finds four humans wearing masks and protective gear smiling vacantly as they work at a chemical table. Boxes of wafers are stacked nearby, marked with a rune meaning "Magic Deluxe" and in tiny print "Version 3." "Move back, move back," she tells them, waving her arm. They turn their heads and she can see that their ears are stopped with wax marked with a rune meaning "Quiet". She pulls the earplug out of one man's ear and says, "Step away, you must stop making the drug." Still smiling fatuously, he replies, "Why must I stop making the drug?" "Because Lord Beast says so." The looming presence of a large, angry werebear gets the workers' attention; they docilely go and sit against a wall. There is a door leading out of the basement lab, and Tommy and Donnie are sent to investigate.
The drug table and the press are shut down and dismantled. Joe and some of the others bag up all the magic wafers. Dr Liz goes upstairs where she notices a loose flange that had connected the tube to the mana source. She stretches to her full height but can't reach the flange; Lord Beast retrieves it for her. The flange, she realizes, is the key to the mana drug production; it is very old and marked with pictographs.
Donnie reports that the "shadow puppeteer" had fled through the basement.
The assault team packs up and goes to Lord Beast's citadel.